Spring may have begun sunny and warm, but area residents shouldn’t hang up their winter coats just yet.

The northern Illinois area has been placed under a winter storm warning, effective at 1 a.m. Friday morning and extending through 1 a.m. Saturday. The National Weather Service issues a winter storm warning when an area is expected to receive up to six inches of snow.

Snow is expected to reach the area after midnight tonight and continue through the day Friday before diminishing Friday evening.

Total snowfall accumulation of up to eight inches is expected.

Staff Meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste said the snow is coming from a low pressure storm system in Wyoming that will pass through central Illinois, but northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin will experience the most snow.

“Low pressure storm systems bring up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and deposit that moisture as precipitation,” Sebenste said. “It will be cold enough to cause that precipitation to fall as snow.”

The storm is expected to produce heavy wet snow with significant accumulations overnight tonight through early Friday.

Temperatures are expected to remain above freezing, so roadways may remain mostly free of ice.

The City of DeKalb public works director also has declared a parking prohibition on all designated snow routes beginning at midnight Thursday and continuing through the day Friday until 6 p.m.

Motorists parking in a designated snow route will receive a minimum fine of $75.

The accumulation may not be enough to prompt officials to cancel Friday classes, but NIU is scheduled to host a campus open house Friday.

Sebenste said the fluctuation in weather is nothing unusual for this time of year.

“March is known for having wild temperature fluctuations,” he said. “It is a time of changing seasons.”

Sebenste did, however, say the weather is expected to warm up on Tuesday.